>‘Craft within a fine context’

‘Craft within a fine context’

Pearl O’Sullivan
Trinity College Dublin
Department of History of Art and Architecture
2007
B.A.

Subject: Craft
Country: Ireland
Period: 20th and 21st Century

This dissertation explores the historic relationship between fine art and craft, and to question the origin of the perceived dichotomy between the two in Western art history. The first section of this study examines this dichotomy, and, as a specific example, looks at art movements in the past two centuries which have made inquiries into the relationship between ‘art’ and ‘craft’. The second section of this study examines these issues in the work and placement of two Irish artists, Brigid McClean and Isabel Nolan, both artists who work with craft media in a fine art context. The final section examines the attitudes of art institutions towards the exhibition, purchase and treatment of fine art which uses craft based media. The author focuses on the Douglas Hyde gallery in Dublin as a case study.

Irish Georgian Society

Education Theses Register

‘Craft within a fine context’